Catalog
Addresses, Web Sites, and 800 Numbers

If you want to contact some of the catalogs we have mentioned
in essays, you will find these useful. We're adding some reputable
sources of books and re-enactor goods, as well. We are providing
these at no benefit to ourselves, merely in the spirit of friends
passing along a source. The absence of a company does not reflect
negatively on them. If someone had ripped us off, we'd tell you.

Amazon Books

Has more than two and a half million titles available, a pretty
good search engine if you're just browsing an area of interest,
and their express shipping is not kidding. Books can be in stock,
back ordered (normally in stock, but they sold out), or special
order. They even have a built-in book finding service for out-of-print
books, so type in any title you're looking for: odds are it will
turn up in one of the four statuses. However, sometimes the statuses
are not correct, as when they listed as out-of-print a freshly
re-printed book. Also very good for music. Excellent customer
service, a rarity on the Web

High-quality re-enactor costume goods, hats, materials, corsets,
hoops, fans, etc, besides many books and an entire separate catalog
of sewing patterns. Will also order any Dover book for you, for
which you have the title, and they take credit cards while Dover
wants checks or money orders. Usually gets to you faster than
ordering directly from Dover, too. They even paper-wrap the books
so the corners don't get dog-eared in transit. Extremely good
service and straight dealing.

Atlanta Cutlery

1-800-883-0300

Some historical goods, ranging from Victorian military sabres
to obsidian knives, varying from catalog to catalog. Much modern
gear, some "ethnic blades" ranging from Japanese to
Cossack.

B&N has color catalogs as well as stores and now an on-line
site. The exclusive mail-order source for their books (they are
publishers, largely of reprints) and lots of quality remainders.
Has one million titles available. If a book is listed as published
by Barnes and Noble, you may not find it any other place.

Excellent non-firing replicas of many firearms, which lets
you see how they weigh, handle, draw, and often break down, without
the humbug of licensing (unless you're in CA, in which case you
have to buy wall plaques for them or something like that) or the
heavy expense of working guns, ranging from flintlocks to modern.
Also Western gun belts, Civil War hats, non-battle-worthy (wall
sculpture or belt jewelry) swords, daggers, axes & halberds,
non-working Medieval crossbows, etc. The blades are often much
heavier and clumsier than real ones.

Dixie Gun Works

1-800-238-6785

A one-stop source for re-enactors or students of the Colonial
wars, Revolutionary War and Civil War, mountain men, and Old West.
Clothes, patterns, weapons, buttons, blankets, tents, and books,
books, books.

Edward R. Hamilton

Falls Village, Ct 06031-5000

Excellent book remainder house, heavy on biography, that saves
costs by publishing a catalog like a newspaper rather than something
glossy in color. The titles in the catalog are not on the web
site, so you really need both. The address is correct without
a street number; we suspect they are the biggest business in town,
that the PO can find by extended zip. No phone number for ordering,
no credit cards: that's why they're cheaper.

Has a buyer's club that gets you 20% off everything except
the very few "reference books" -- they're 10% off. On
a $200 or $300 order, that's considerable, and setting up to write
in a period normally requires a few hundred dollars in books,
unless you write at the library where everything's handy. The
75-page catalog has English language and Greek language sections.
Covers the entire history of Ancient Greece, Roman Greece, the
Byzantines, the Middle Ages, the Turkish Period, on through the
contemporary. Especially useful is the vast collection of maps,
local guides, and guides to flora and fauna. Catalog can be considered
a "Greece in all periods" bibliography.

Good for WW2 and some Civil War gear, but can be so historically
ignorant that they call a BC Celtic helmet a Viking helmet --
but the only source we have found for a high-quality Celtic horned
helmet. They may accidently have what you're looking for, if you
are savvy enough to recognize it. Largely modern high-tech gear.